¡Ask A Mexican!

By Gustavo Arellano

Dear Mexican: Why is it that many Mexican women hate on me for having an Asian (Korean to be exact) novia? I notice this in a lot of places. We go to the store and I get looks. We go to the movies and people look or say things like “Mira la chinita.” I get looks from Asian people as well but many Mexican women look at me with the evil eye. When I ask my co-worker who is Latina, she basically said it makes her and other Latinas feel unwanted. I really do not see color lines. What does it matter? I don’t judge others, so why do they judge me? My novia is a good person, and we are doing great. Her family and my family have accepted us with open arms. But sometimes we have to avoid certain places. The funny thing is she speaks Spanish fluently, and I am a novice with Korean. Many of the Latinas are hating but they themselves can’t speak the language of the culture they hold so dearly. I’m a shaved head rocker and I don’t think people expect it when I say she is my novia. What’s your take on this?

—El Pocho Loco Del Burbank

Dear Pocho: First, the “P.S.” you added at the end of your letter: “I love it when people talk smack about her and she turns around and tells them, ‘Entiendo todo lo que dicen, babosas,’ It really freaks people out.” HA! I’m glad she understands everything that the babosas say about her, too. And I’m glad that your chinita’s parents accept you. Back when I was dating a chinita (a Vietnamese girl, but who’s keeping score?), her parents thought I was little better than a cholo-gardener-illegal-bandito even though I dressed like a Chicano nerd (guayaberas, Chucks, slacks) and was a graduate student (the cholo-gardener-bandito bit was only on weekends). My parents, on the other hand, welcomed the chinita into our household. Then again, I’ve heard of situations like that flipped, so I wouldn’t attribute Know Nothing relationship attitudes to any particular raza. Stats on intermarriage rates between chinitos and wabs are hard to come by, which I guess proves your point—even demographers don’t believe in the possibility of chinito-Mexi love—but I do know that Latinos and Asians are the two ethnic groups with the highest rates of marrying outside their group, so your beautiful relationship is the shape of cosas to come, not some crime against nature àla a Mexican Republican. Mexican women don’t like your chinita? They’re just upset no man is giving them the chile, period.

Why do some Chicano activists hate Columbus, but get mad because this Mexican (me) is not fluent in Spanish? Isn’t Spanish a European language that half our ancestors forced on the other half of our ancestors?

Why do Mexicans here in Chiapas think that, because I’m a gringo, I will or am able to pay more for stuff? Nothing works including, “No soy turista” or ¿Cuanto cuesta por los Mexicanos? Now my pocho friend has to tell me to hide my skinny white ass around the corner while he negotiates the price for everything. ¿Qué paso? Do I have “tonto” stamped on my forehead or what? Soy pobre maestro de inglés. No gano mucho.

—Chiapas Gringo

Dear Gabacho: You think that slumming it in southernmost Mexico teaching English to chiapanecos entitles you to everything Mexican, including easier haggling at the tianguis? Cry me a pinche river, Great White Padre. An American haggling Mexican vendors in Mexico is like a city bureaucrat demanding taxes from a kid’s lemonade stand.